Vale Royal
Cheshire

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales
described Vale Royal like this:

VALE-ROYAL, the seat of Lord Delamere, in Whitegate parish, Cheshire; on the river Weaver, near the Northwestern railway, 3 miles SW of Northwich. A Cistertian abbey was founded here in 1266, by Prince Edward, afterwards Edward I.; and was given, at the dissolution, to the Holcrofts. The mansion occupies the site of the abbey; was built in the time of Elizabeth by the Holcrofts; has been greatly altered by modern renovations and extensions; includes a portion of the old abbey in its basement; comprises a centre and two wings; is adorned in front with several towers; includes a great hall 70 feet long, hung round with interesting portraits, some of them by Rubens; was visited, in 1617, by James I.; and was plundered, in the civil wars of Charles I., by the soldiers of Cromwell. ...

A viaduct in the vicinity takes the Northwestern railway over the Weaver; is 456 feet long; and has 5 arches of 63 feet in span and 60 feet in height.